Episode 32
Chapter 7 Murderer (7)
I neither affirmed nor denied.
But my action was after I had already answered.
Overall, I definitely have the upper hand.
However, it has a downside that negates all of its advantages.
That I’ve never committed a murder.
‘sh*t.’
There was definitely an opportunity to target his neck and heart.
However, right before the last blow, the movement stiffened.
Naturally and naturally in an area I am not conscious of.
Han Chang-shik escaped every time without missing a chance.
And when that situation was repeated twice, he noticed.
‘I never thought it would be this much.’
I knew at least that I was more sensitive to death than the average person.
It must be because of the trauma he experienced when his parents died.
I didn’t overcome it, I just buried it because I had to grit my teeth and stand up.
How he reacted sensitively when John tried to kill Ethan.
It also made me feel dirty when I realized that people were dying through the community.
The fact that he acted on his own when he thought that Nam-gyu might die from being exposed in front of a gun.
What was agitated when the bounty mission appeared.
The fact that I frowned when I saw the corpse I saw after arriving here is actually because I am sensitive to death.
‘If it was a monster, this wouldn’t have happened.’
Because it seems that the things that can affect me are limited to ‘death of a person’.
In a situation where I would die if I didn’t kill it right away, the death of the monster didn’t give me much inspiration.
At best, it was about being wary of unfamiliar things.
He didn’t hesitate when actually annihilating the monster babies.
But the Han Changsik was different. Even if he is a villain and a murderer, he is definitely a human being.
That fact is putting an unconscious brake on me.
My mood got messed up.
At that time, Han Chang-sik, who accurately identified my weaknesses, rushed first.
“Tsk.”
I stabbed the spear right away and kept him in check.
However, Han Chang-sik twisted his body and avoided the spear that aimed at his chest.
Taking advantage of the spear’s appearance, I hooked the left blade around his neck and pulled it.
It was a perfect opportunity to cut Han Chang-shik’s throat with a spear blade, just like cutting rice roots with a scythe.
But again, my hands are stiff.
Han Chang-sik quickly bent down and pulled away.
Between my teeth, the hanchang ceremony came closer.
Puck, puck puck.
Seven battles went back and forth in one breath.
Starting from the change of my weapon to a dagger, we exchanged blows at close range and aimed at each other’s vital points.
To the eyes of an ordinary person, he probably couldn’t even see how he and I exchanged hands.
The close combat became more and more intense, and my expression crumpled.
‘sh*t.’
Compared to the first encounter, Han Chang-sik’s reaction speed became faster.
It means your body is adapting.
You shouldn’t give me a chance to use that body properly anymore.
In order to inflict an effective blow that grieved his teeth, he held the dagger backwards and drew.
A solid red line formed on Han Chang-sik’s chin as he leaned back.
At the same time, another tech stone shattered from his hand.
I didn’t know what technique to use, so I decided to lose my body.
“this… … !”
However, when he was caught by a vine growing at his feet, it was pointless to back away and increase the distance.
I tried running backwards to increase the distance, but to no avail.
The vines grew faster than I could react, coiling around my legs and climbing up my body.
At the moment of oops, all hands and feet were tied.
Han Chang-shik, who chased after me right after using the skill stone, was swinging his sword.
During a time that ordinary people cannot even perceive, several things happened simultaneously.
「The senses are expanded.」
The movement of the falling sword slowed down with the momentum to cut me in two.
The muscles on his body that were caught in the vines swelled up tight.
At the same time as the sparks extended from my body, the barrier I had practiced until just before coming here was formed to barely cover me.
bang!
With a roar, it was blocked by Han Chang-sik’s black shield.
“Keep!”
He trembled all over his body as if he had been electrocuted.
This is thanks to the fact that all remaining elemental magic was pushed into the magic that creates the shield.
If you use elemental magic in a place that maintains the shape of the barrier, your attribute lightning will be overlaid on the translucent wall.
This is a method that I came up with while thinking about how to apply this technology.
Thanks to this, you can defend and attack at the same time.
‘Although I can’t use it often.’
My magic and elemental magic are too small to use this skill freely.
‘Up to 3 times when magic power is full.’
Even so, it was this much because the area of the shield was minimized to reduce the consumption of mana.
If you use it with other techniques, the number of times will be reduced even more.
He had already used up quite a bit of magic during the battle.
I just ran out of elemental magic by creating a shield.
‘I have to finish it.’
As I forcibly opened my arms, the lightning-charred vines patted down.
I took a step forward before Han Chang-sik could straighten himself.
Crack!
The longsword that had scratched the ground began to rise upwards in an oblique line.
As if it was a habit, his body almost froze before the blade touched Han Chang-shik.
‘Don’t hesitate.’
In the slowed down cognitive realm, I recalled the corpses lying at Changsik Han’s feet.
The moment I stop here, that corpse might become my precious person.
Let’s drive me with a whip. Geary.
‘Don’t be weak, Hyeonu Kang!’
For the first time since the game started, I was able to get covered in red blood.
* * *
The end of Han Chang-sik, who slaughtered the members until the masked man appeared, was shabby.
Han Chang-shik’s body, which had been severed from his left shoulder to his head, rose into the air and then fell to the floor.
The space that had been filled with noise until just before became quiet.
The whole scene was broadcast live to the situation room through body cams of the members.
“Target, kill, kill complete, situation… … It’s over.”
Among the survivors, Lieutenant Yoo Min-hoon, who had the highest rank, spoke in a locked voice.
He tried to straighten the muzzle, which kept shaking.
‘Bo, I couldn’t see it.’
The sword the masked man wielded earlier was nowhere to be seen.
It wasn’t just this one time.
The two men, referred to as players, continued to show movements that were hard to see as human beings.
Yoo Min-hun lost sight of them several times while the clash continued.
It was a speed that could not be explained by human standards.
In addition to that, fire and ice, vines, and menacing sparks.
The faces of the dead comrades caught in the huge fireball shimmered.
From nob le mt l dot com
Just then, the unidentified man who killed Han Chang-shik stumbled.
“Cheup.”
At the faint sound of moaning, Yoo Min-hoon lowered the muzzle slightly and watched the man.
He was shaking as if he was trying to suppress the pain.
However, after a little more time passed, as if the pain had disappeared, he exhaled a long breath and straightened his body.
The man who cut off Han Chang-shik’s body and covered himself with his blood.
He looked back at the survivors.
The sound of someone gulping and swallowing resounded loudly like thunder.
What followed was the plain voice of a strange man.
“Are you connected with Captain Yang Jo-cheol?”
Minhun Yoo reacted quickly.
“Yes, communication with the situation room is currently established.”
The man clapped his hands at the answer full of nervousness.
Yoo Min-hoon wet his parched lips and approached the man.
Then he handed over the earphones he was wearing in his ears and the microphone he had attached to his bulletproof vest.
The man who received it let out a deep sigh and said.
“Did you see who the players are?”
The answer came from the earphone on the other side that I hadn’t handed to the man.
『… … yes.”
It was General Yang Jo-cheol, who was in charge of this operation.
“Do you admit that these people survived because of me?”
『… … yes.”
“Whoa.”
The man’s voice, as he wiped away the blood-soaked mask, was slightly hushed.
“Then, let’s put these people’s lives at the price and cover the Gwanak-gu incident. There were no human casualties. I don’t know what the kid is, and I want to live a map, so I’m going to ask you a favor.”
『… … We will take action. Thank you for saving the crew.』
“thank you. And what I am saying from now on is not a request, but a warning.”
A heavy silence began over the earphones.
“What you just saw is the level of a player who has only cleared level 1 or 2 missions. Do you know how many mission levels there are?”
『I heard that in addition to the basic 10 missions, there are additional unleveled missions.』
“It’s nice that it doesn’t need an explanation. In the future, don’t even think about getting directly involved in incidents involving players.”
It’s only going to be a dog’s death, he added, bleakly.
“Your role in this crazy game is simple.”
The man spoke calmly to Yang Jo-cheol, who had no answer.
“It’s all about monitoring the players so that they don’t go wild in society with public power and asking for cooperation not to deviate from the existing social order.”
『… … .』
“If you’re not dropping a bomb, contact me through the community when something like this happens.”
『… … I’ll keep that in mind. Who can I find in the community?』
After a short gap, the man’s answer came back.
“Kay, that’s my code name.”
“ah… … Remember, I will.”
“The kid who had an accident in Gwanak-gu has been added as a friend, so it will be easy to contact him through him.”
Fuuk, the exhaled sigh felt heavy.
“My name is Nam-gyu Lim, I am 12 years old, I am in the 3rd class of the 5th grade of Bongeum Elementary School, and my home address is Gwanak-gu… … .”
The voice reciting the child’s address was too plain.
An artificial feeling, as if it was deliberately made up.
It was somehow creepy, so Minhun Yoo gulped and swallowed dry saliva.
“Currently at Hanyul Motel in Guro-gu. I’ll ask you to come outside, so take it.”
『Yes, I will send agents right away.』
“and.”
The man’s eyes lightly closed and opened for an instant.
“Let’s not go after me. If you do, you’ll see me run amok like a cub that just died.”
After that, Shin-young, the man who grabbed the earphone and microphone and tore them off, disappeared.
* * *
Buying a shield was really a godsend.
If it hadn’t been for this, it would have been me who would have died the moment I got hit by the vine.
But I didn’t die, Han Chang-sik was killed by me.
My best and efforts were rewarded this time too.
Even so, the thrill didn’t rise like when I first caught the monster in the 2nd level mission.
Rather, the body was limp.
There was no memory left after he left after warning Yang Jo-cheol about the player.
When I came to my senses, I was staring blankly at the front door of the house.
I don’t know how I got here.
When I subconsciously lowered my gaze, I saw a red-stained hand.
The blood of Han Chang-shik persistently left its traces.
My heart skipped a beat, wondering if I had passed through the middle of downtown Seoul like this, but fortunately my body was wrapped in magic.
It was using invisibility.
‘It’s true that I’m maintaining this even in this situation.’
I tried to pick and laugh to get rid of my complex feelings, but it had no effect.
Rather, it had the opposite effect.
“f*ck… … .”
As I looked at the dried blood, my hands began to tremble.
I keep thinking of the moment when Han Chang-shik’s head rolled on the floor.
The feeling you felt on your fingertips as the blade cut through human flesh.
The sound I heard at the moment I gently cut through a bone that should have been hard.
The direction of the blood splattered as Han Chang-sik’s shoulders and head, which were heavy with blood, fell to the floor.
Everything was too vivid.
His breathing became more and more rough, and his body began to lose his senses.
“Huh, huh.”
i know what this means
In the past, when my parents passed away, I had already experienced it.
It was the same as when my heart beat faster when I saw only cars, and I suffered from fantasies of cars driving on the road colliding and exploding.
PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder) I experienced after watching the CCTV footage of the hit-and-run accident at the police station.
It was the final diagnosis of Seo Jong-hoon, who personally examined me at the time.
At that time, I had a hard time even looking at the shadow of the car for a while because of the combination of loss, despair, and shock.
The medium of the car reminded me of my parents’ accident and absence.
Now, the medium has become human blood.
This blood is bringing up memories I want to forget.
‘I killed a person.’
Feeling a choking sensation, I hurriedly inhaled.
‘stop.’
Even if you are shocked now, nothing will change.
Killing Han Chang-shik was the best. If I go back to that moment, I will kill him.
I’d rather be a murderer than my loved ones get caught up in this game and die.
After repeating those words over and over like a mantra, I could breathe a little more.
After that, I fumbled with my legs to get out of the villa building.
Hook, hook.
I consciously let out a long breath.
It was rough to hide in a narrow alley and take off the mask.
The dried blood turned to powder and dripped.
I put the mask in the storage box and took out my cell phone from my pocket.
The tone went off, and it wasn’t long before the other person answered the phone.
“why?”
It was Jaehyuk.
“Where are you?”
I couldn’t help but let my voice tremble a little.
『… … Of course it’s home. What time is it? What are you doing not sleeping at this hour? What about work tomorrow?”
“What about you?”
“You got an emergency call earlier and left. what are you doing… … 』
“Then let me borrow some clothes.”
“ha?”
I didn’t have time to explain to the guy who was asking questions.
“Come out in front of the house in about 20 minutes.”
I just said what I needed right away and hung up.